Chunk: on borrowed time
Meaning & Usage
On borrowed time refers to existing, surviving, or operating past an expected limit, life expectancy, or deadline; surviving under precarious, provisional conditions where an eventual breakdown, demise, or termination is imminent.
🧲 Common Collocates
- Common Verbs: live on borrowed time, operate on borrowed time, survive on borrowed time, run on borrowed time, be on borrowed time.
- Characteristic Contexts: Critical health conditions, failing enterprises, obsolete hardware or aging vehicles, embattled political administrations.
💬 Contextual Examples
- With engine trouble in the middle of the desert, we were driving on borrowed time.
- The physician warned him that after his third cardiac scare, he was living on borrowed time unless he made immediate lifestyle adjustments.
- Mounting debts and dwindling revenue made it clear that the regional carrier was operating on borrowed time.
🎴 Interactive Web Practice
Practice 1: The specialist warned that without surgery, the patient was living on ______ time.
Answer:
borrowed Practice 2: With both engines overheating mid-flight, the pilots were flying on borrowed ______.
Answer:
time Practice 3: The struggling tech startup has been operating ______ borrowed time since the loss of its primary venture backer.
Answer:
on 🔗 Knowledge Base Connections
- 🔑 Parent Node: Borrow
- ⚖️ Related Discrimination: borrow-vs-lend